Growing up is hard to watch!

My husband's company had their annual company picnic this past Friday. They held it in Grand Rapids at a place called Craig's Cruisers. First, let me say that they did an awesome job! Better than any Army picnic we had ever been to! Second, my son is growing up. He drove a car for the first time! Ok. It was a go-cart, but you have to know the feeling of watching your first born behind the wheel of a car makes you feel two things - old and sad. Oh to keep him young forever! But alas, it is not to be. Anyway, here is the video of my son's first turn around the "block".

The things we do for our children...

Ok. Get ready to laugh. We went to the county fair and they had a children's presentation called Pirate Island. It was billed as interactive and since it was free and looked very cute, we decided to make it a point to see it. I didn't know interactive would mean that I would get turned into a mermaid! Yes, we were selected from volunteers. I thought we would go up on stage, see or be part of a magic trick, and then sit back down. Instead we were led to a tent where the lead pirate's wench put us into various costumes.

Yes, this is me - complete with mermaid costume, a ring of flowers, and some weird headband with little alien fuzzy things out the top! I had to do the mermaid cha-cha (which was a lot like the hula) and take part in a story of mystery, intrigue, betrayal, and magic. My only consolation was that it was fun and that my baby looked ADORABLE as a mermaid. My laughing husband, however, was no help at all! Oh well!

Sweetness at its best!

I took my kids downtown today to play in the fountain. For those of you who don't know. Our town has a beautiful downtown. During the winter the sidewalks have underground warming systems to keep them snow and ice free and during the summer there is a fountain that kids just go nuts in! Water squirts up in large streams from several different areas of the ground. They come and go in a random sort of way and the kids loved chasing them.

Needless to say, they got soaked! Good thing Mom was planning to take them so we had towels and a change of clothes! Caitlynn was running away from the water here. She got so excited just to reach out and "wash my hand, Mama!" Nick was full into the water. He ran through the streams, stood over them and let them soak him through, and even tried to use his feet to contain the water underground. Our day was filled with fun! Later we took a walk and went to the park. Then we sat down on the living room floor and spent some quality time watching a movie and eating chips with nacho cheese. I love my babies so much! They try my patience at times, but in the end, love is always there!

Summer Fun

We have been having quite a lot of fun this sumer with many days being spent out at the beach. Lake Michigan is a wonderful stop for fun. Nick and Caitlynn started in early May preparing for a summer of beach fun. They stopped for a rest under a beach tent that was for sale at a sporting goods store. They looked so cute reclining on the chairs with their shades on and, of course, baby near Caitlynn's side. Yes, she is in that stage where a baby must go anywhere and everywhere with us. Our first trip to the beach was just the kids and I. The weather was perfect, although the lake was still a little cool (in the 30's). You would have thought the water was perfect for Nick though. The child played and spashed with other kids until I had to pull him out because he was shivering. He played in the lake about 45 minutes. I thought he was going to freeze - I know I wanted to.

Caitlynn wisely realized that the water was to cold for her as yet and contented herself with playing in the sand - quite happily I might add. By the end of the day she had buried herself more than once up to the waist and myself countless times. She doesn't remember going to the beach last summer I am sure - we only made it once. It is so nice to live just 5 miles from the beach instead of 90 minutes. A state park pass allows us unlimited access to the beach during the day. We have been making the most of it on the good days. I tried to get in a little early tanning and Caitlynn thought it would be fun to copy mommy and join in. She laid down on the towels next to me and tried to copy my posture. The opportunity was too good to miss and I had to grab the camera and snap a shot. We look forward to more time at the beach. Come and visit and you too shall become a "beach bum"! Love ya'll!

4th of July 2009

The 4th was a wonderful weekend for our family. We actually had three whole days of celebrating, not just one! Our fun started on the 3rd with town activities and then fireworks that night. I was a little bummed about not having fireworks on the 4th, but hey, at least we had them. The show was awesome! One the fourth I had to work for a few hours but then we had our BBQ, just the family this year. We are still getting to know people and working hard on our home and in our jobs. Bills to pay and all that nonsense. The kids had a blast. We went and rented a canoe on the 3rd (the date on the pic is off). It was so much fun and the kids just had a great time! On the 5th we went to the beach and had a cookout and played in the sand and the waves. We were all so exhausted (me because I worked some all three of these days and cooked, cleaned, and played). Love and miss you all! Angel

Moving blues

I have moved! I know, many of you might not understand why that statement seems so happy when you read the title, but let me explain. Moving stinks. Yes, really. The people who were renting this place before us had never heard of the cleaning aisle in Walmart, mold and mildew were normal bathroom companions for them, and landscaping is something that only people on tv do. I not only have had to move in and unpack but I have gone through three bottles of cleaning solutions, two cans of dust spray, countless washcloths, more weed eater string than humanly possible, and have emptied my vaccume numerous times. The bonus of all this - I AM IN A LARGER, CLEANER, SAFER HOME WITH A FENCED IN BACK YARD JUST EIGHT BLOCKS FROM THE LAKE AND DOWNTOWN!!! That alone is enough to make me happy. My husband is happy that I am happy and my kids love their yard and new neighbors (there is a little boy Nick's age next door). My dogs are happy because they can run around a yard again without being chained up and my cats are happy that they have a basement to slink off to when they are feeling anti-social. All in all, life is turning up. I got a new job and I am so happy with that! I will be able to work a flexible schedule and get some great experience and maybe some help finishing my BSN in the future. I honestly feel that working makes me a better mommy. Some might be confused, so let me explain. Spending time with my kids is awesome, but getting some time away from them makes me miss them and realize just how important they are to me and how important that time I have with them is. I get a break, earn a little extra spending money, and relax for a while. My kids go crazy at their grandmothers and get a break from mommy. All in all, we get along better with these break times. My time at Trendway was awesome, but 9 hours a day away from my kids for 6 weeks almost killed me. This will be much less and will be flexible around my family so everyone wins! Hooray! Anyway, it is so late. I have been to the swimming pool, an interview, the store, and have worked outside in the yard for several hours while playing with children today. I have been staying up to 11:30 every night to unpack and clean and I think that I am to the point now where exhaustion is about to take over. Love you all! Come visit! We now have room for you! A

One of those days...

Have you ever had one of those days when you planned for something wonderful to happen and then somehow a bunch of crap just hits you like a ton of bricks? We had one of those days on Sunday, literally. It was a beautiful day and we had just finished having company for two days straight. I love having our family around close by, but we had company two weekends in a row and were so worn out after two long weeks of work and such. My little man had his ballet recital on Saturday. It was so adorable. I'll post about that later. Anyway, to get back to the real story, Mike suggested we go to the zoo. They have some new exhibits which opened this weekend with some new animals. The kids and I were super excited as we packed a travel bag, got lunch to go, and hit the road for Grand Rapids and John Ball Zoo.

Now, remember when I said that you can plan for a wonderful day and what can happen? Well, crap happened five minutes after entering the zoo - duck poop to be exact. We were standing and watching the pelicans that are at the entrance when three ducks flew in from behind us to land in the pond. What's wrong with that you might ask? Nothing. Except that these ducks flew about three feet over our heads and decided to relieve themselves at that exact moment. Let me empasize - ALL THREE OF THEM AT THE SAME TIME!!!! Yup, you guessed it. DUCK POOP WENT EVERYWHERE! At first we stood there in shock and then began to assess the damage. Duck poop was all up the back of our bodies - jeans, jackets, back pack, my husband's hair. Caitlynn, protected by our bodies and the stroller top, was the onlyone who walked away clean.

Luckily we had brought spare clothes and the weather was warm enough. We stripped off jackets and changed Nick's jeans. Mike and I took turns scrubbing duck poop off the backs of each others jeans and shoes. I washed it out of his hair while he scrubbed the backpack clean and then dumped the soiled articles in the car. Thirty minutes later we bravely re-entered the zoo and RUSHED through the pond exhibits to bigger, and hopefully cleaner, things.

The rest of the day went off without a hitch. We spent a fun-filled day at the zoo enjoying the touch tank (sharks and rays), the pettying zoo (barnyard animals galore), riding a camel (Nick and Dad), cursing and plotting the death of any and all ducks and much more. What had started out as a crappy beginning turned into a beautiful awesome day. We concluded our day by taking a spin around the pond in the swan paddle boats. I know, I know. Hadn't we had enough water fowl for the day? These seemed tame enough though. Then it was time to head back home. Nick has been begging to visit Craig's Cruisers, so we made a quick stop there so that he and Daddy could have a go-cart race. Caitlynn and I found a place to feed the fish. Feeding fish is an understatement - fish frenzy would be more exact. Carp were everywhere, much to the delight of my daughter. They would come out of the water for the pellets floating on the top, sucker mouths making all sorts of kissing noises. It was a madhouse and she loved it! The day was done - started pretty nasty, but ended up good. More than one good thing came out of the experience, first of all, it will be a zoo visit we won't ever forget. Secondly, now we can laugh about the fact that the poop doesn't hit the fan, it hits us!